kitzzie wrote:Had my first lot of bloods done since starting on Gilenya 1 and 1/2 mths ago and the results came back positive for a type of TB?
Could it be a so called false positive?
Pls let me know more about this if you have experience with this.
Welcome to ThisIsMS, kitzzie.
There is always the possibility of a false positive, but a person can be infected with tuberculosis (TB) without showing symptoms; the bacteria can be dormant if the person's immune system is strong enough to fight the infection. TB can be converted from dormant to active when the immune system is weakened.
In the last century, sunlight (vitamin D) was used effectively as therapy for TB.
Recently, these researchers in Spain found that the risk of converting dormant TB to active TB was greater in people with lower vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D status and incidence of tuberculosis infection conversion in contacts of pulmonary tuberculosis patients: a prospective cohort study. (2015)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25274036
Was your vitamin D level measured in the "bloods done since starting on Gilenya?" If not, ask your doctor for the 25-hydroxy D blood test; and ask for your own copy of the test results so that you have the actual numbers.
